The Amazing Race

Lindsey S., Hunter B., Paulina D., and Emma G

The Amazing Race

Lindsey S., Hunter B., Paulina D., and Emma G

July 22, 1996

Today was a rough day for the whole group. Last night, we ate at what we thought was a high quality, wonderful restaurant, but let me tell you: it was much better going down then it was coming up. The whole group got sick, except for Emma, who did not eat the meat from the restaurant that everyone else did. Poor Emma, she had to stay in the hotel while all of us meat eaters were puking up our guts. We think that this sickness was caused by food poisining because of the symptoms. The symptoms of food poinsoning are: nausea, vommiting, dry mouth, and diarrhea, which all of us meat eaters definitely experienced. Hopefully tomorrow we are feeling much better, because I've heard food poisoning can last for days on end!

Until tomorrow,

The Green Group

Vaccination

On our trip we had to get vaccinations to prevent sickness. We got vaccinations for hepatitis A and B, rabies, typhoid, and malaria. These vaccines came in handy when protecting us from disease. Unfortunately a few of us still got food poisoning. The food poisoning affected our homeostasis with lots of vomiting in order to get harmful acid out of the body.

Chinese Paddlefish (China)

Scientific Name: Psephurus gladius
Adaptations: The snouts contain sensors that help them locate the small fish and crustaceans they survive on.
The Chinese Paddlefish have specialized fins to move their rather large bodies through swift river currents.
The Chinese Paddlefish's gill arches are the predominant features seen inside the paddlefish's mouth. Paddlefish swim with their mouth open, filtering the water. The gill arches have filaments on them called gill rakers that sieve the zooplankton organisms from the water.
The Chinese Paddlefish travel upstream once a year to mate and lay eggs in the water to continue to increase their population numbers.
Although the Chinese Paddlefish species is shrinking, they still do a huge amount for their ecosystem. The Chines Paddlefish balances amount of micoorganisms such as zooplankton and filters water as it moves throughout the river.

Double Saddle Butterfly Fish (Bora Bora)

Scientific Name: Chaetodon ulietensis
Adaptations: The butterfly fish has a dot on its dorsal fin that gives the impression that it's "rear" is actually its "front," fooling many predators into attacking from the wrong angle.
They have a very long like snout that makes it very manageable to get into small crevices to find their prey.
The vibrant colors the Butterfly fish has during the daylight change a bit at night to help dilute their appearance to predators. A very well needed adaption considering how vibrant colored this fish is.
The Butterfly fish are gonochoristic, meaning the sex of each fish remains the same throughout its life. The reproduction of these species of fish is like more others. The mating ritual between the males and females is a lot like the human. The fish tend to pick a mate early in life. These fish mate for life and if they become separated, one partner will swim higher in the ocean to look for the other partner. When they first mate, the male and female circle each other, head to tail, and chase each other through the reefs. This is their mating ritual and dance, which becomes prolonged and energetic. The mated couples are territorial, often choosing a section of reef as their own. During the spawning phase, the female will lay between 3000 to 4000 eggs a night.
The Butterfly Fish contributes to it's environment by creating mutualism with coral reefs by cleaning them and by also balancing the ecosystem by eating small fish and other small animals.

Poison Dart Frog (Brazil)

Scientific Name: Dendrobitdae phyllobates
Adaptations: Strong hind legs to repel the frog though the air, sticky pads on their feet to allow the frogs to climb trees, bright skin color to ward off predators and warn them of the danger, and mostly a strong poison on the skin that is poisonous enough to kill 10 adult males.
Reproduction: The mating season for the poison arrow frogs is during the rainy season of the rain forests, from about mid-July to mid-September. Once the male has successfully completed the courtship ritual, females can lay up to six eggs which they normally do in small pools of water, the male frogs goes and fertilizes the eggs. After the eggs are laid in a save location, the male frog returns to the eggs to check on them. It takes about twelve days for the eggs to hatch into tadpoles. Once the tadpoles are hatched, they climb onto the male's back where he will carry them to a safe location such as a stream, a lake, little ponds or even broken trees and branches for them to grow and develop.
The Poison Dart Frogs contribute greatly to their ecosystem. The frogs kill off small animals such as spiders and insects with their poison. The frogs kill animals on contact, but some larger animals are not effected by the poison. The Poison Dart Frog regulates the amount of small insects ans small animals that it eats. The Poison Dart Frog also contributes greatly to our society and has helped create tons of medical advances in our society because of their strange poison.

Chinese Paddlefish (China)

Scientific Name: Psephurus gladius
Adaptations: The snouts contain sensors that help them locate the small fish and crustaceans they survive on.
The Chinese Paddlefish have specialized fins to move their rather large bodies through swift river currents.
The Chinese Paddlefish's gill arches are the predominant features seen inside the paddlefish's mouth. Paddlefish swim with their mouth open, filtering the water. The gill arches have filaments on them called gill rakers that sieve the zooplankton organisms from the water.
The Chinese Paddlefish travel upstream once a year to mate and lay eggs in the water to continue to increase their population numbers.
Although the Chinese Paddlefish species is shrinking, they still do a huge amount for their ecosystem. The Chines Paddlefish balances amount of micoorganisms such as zooplankton and filters water as it moves throughout the river.

Double Saddle Butterfly Fish (Bora Bora)

Scientific Name: Chaetodon ulietensis
Adaptations: The butterfly fish has a dot on its dorsal fin that gives the impression that it's "rear" is actually its "front," fooling many predators into attacking from the wrong angle.
They have a very long like snout that makes it very manageable to get into small crevices to find their prey.
The vibrant colors the Butterfly fish has during the daylight change a bit at night to help dilute their appearance to predators. A very well needed adaption considering how vibrant colored this fish is.
The Butterfly fish are gonochoristic, meaning the sex of each fish remains the same throughout its life. The reproduction of these species of fish is like more others. The mating ritual between the males and females is a lot like the human. The fish tend to pick a mate early in life. These fish mate for life and if they become separated, one partner will swim higher in the ocean to look for the other partner. When they first mate, the male and female circle each other, head to tail, and chase each other through the reefs. This is their mating ritual and dance, which becomes prolonged and energetic. The mated couples are territorial, often choosing a section of reef as their own. During the spawning phase, the female will lay between 3000 to 4000 eggs a night.
The Butterfly Fish contributes to it's environment by creating mutualism with coral reefs by cleaning them and by also balancing the ecosystem by eating small fish and other small animals.

Poison Dart Frog (Brazil)

Scientific Name: Dendrobitdae phyllobates
Adaptations: Strong hind legs to repel the frog though the air, sticky pads on their feet to allow the frogs to climb trees, bright skin color to ward off predators and warn them of the danger, and mostly a strong poison on the skin that is poisonous enough to kill 10 adult males.
Reproduction: The mating season for the poison arrow frogs is during the rainy season of the rain forests, from about mid-July to mid-September. Once the male has successfully completed the courtship ritual, females can lay up to six eggs which they normally do in small pools of water, the male frogs goes and fertilizes the eggs. After the eggs are laid in a save location, the male frog returns to the eggs to check on them. It takes about twelve days for the eggs to hatch into tadpoles. Once the tadpoles are hatched, they climb onto the male's back where he will carry them to a safe location such as a stream, a lake, little ponds or even broken trees and branches for them to grow and develop.
The Poison Dart Frogs contribute greatly to their ecosystem. The frogs kill off small animals such as spiders and insects with their poison. The frogs kill animals on contact, but some larger animals are not effected by the poison. The Poison Dart Frog regulates the amount of small insects ans small animals that it eats. The Poison Dart Frog also contributes greatly to our society and has helped create tons of medical advances in our society because of their strange poison.

Egyptian Cobra (Morocco)

Scientific name: Najehaje legionis (reptile)

3 Characteristics: the cobra has a neuro toxic venom that can kill anything that it comes by. It has adapted this characteristic so it can neutralize prey and it makes a name for itself so predators know not to eat it. The second characteristic of the cobra is the notorious "hood" that expands when the snake is threatened and scares prey. The third characteristic is its color and patterns that help humans distinguish them from other snakes. The snakes reproduce through sexual reproduction and the female lays eggs when it is fertilized by a male. The snake has its place in the ecosystem as a predator. This snake helps to balance out the amount of prey in the ecosystem and provides competition for other animals which is what keeps an ecosystem thriving.

Monotreme (Australia)

Scientific name: Monotremata (mammal)

Adaptations: The three characteristics are they have hair on their bodies, they produce milk through mammary glands to feed their young, to keep away a predator they have spiked hair which scares the predator because they don't want to get hurt. The monotreme reproduce sexually and lay eggs when its fertilized by the male monotreme. The monotreme is a prey in its ecosystem which means he is wanted by many of other animals in its ecosystem, but the monotreme keeps a balance in the ecosystem by eating and getting eaten so the other animals get the nutrients.

Blue Footed Booby (Galapagos)

Scientific name: Sula nebouxii

The blue footed booby is a fish eating bird that lives on all of the Galapagos islands. Some characteristics of the bird and that it has bright blue feet to attract mates to have eggs with. The blue footed booby used to make nests to have its eggs but has evolved to just lay them on the beach. The Blue footed booby also has webbed feet to help it move in the water easy and it has a long beak to help it catch fish along the shore. It has a role in the ecosystem to control population of fish as a predator. This animal reproduces sexually with one male and one female and produces eggs.